消化
しょうか · shouka · JLPT N2 · noun
digestion
🍽️ 消 (dissolve) + 化 (change): food changes until it dissolves
消 means to melt away or dissolve, and 化 means to transform. Digestion is food being transformed until it dissolves into the body. Remember that 消化 breaks food down.
消 — water 氵 + 肖 (phonetic)
消 is a semantic-phonetic compound: the water radical 氵 indicates the meaning, while 肖 (xiào) supplies the sound. It originally described water dwindling or melting away, and from there extended to the modern senses of vanishing, dissolving, and dispelling.
化 — person 亻 + spoon/upside-down person 匕
化 is an associative compound showing a standing person 亻 next to 匕, originally a depiction of a person turned upside-down. Together they suggest a figure transforming from one state to another, giving the core meaning 'change' or 'transform'. The character later extended to senses like 'convert', 'influence', and the noun suffix '-ization'.